In the musical Cats, as originally performed on London (but not on Broadway), Growltiger and Griddlebone sing a duet entitled “The Ballad of Billy McCaw”. My wife and I were having a debate about its lyrics last night.
The key phrase is this:
She’d say, “Billy, Billy M’Caw!
Come give us, come give us a dance on the bar!”
And Billy would dance on the bar
And Billy would dance on the bar
And then we’d feel balmy, in each eye a tear
And emotion would make us all order more beer
My wife claims that the word in the second-to-last-line should be “barmy”, not “balmy”. I claim it’s “balmy”.
In my favor:
(1) All the online lyrics we could find have “balmy”, not “barmy”
(2) Barmy, which means something like “silly”, doesn’t really fit there
In her favor:
(1) Balmy doesn’t really make any sense there either
(2) She’s Australian, and far more familiar with English slang and English accents than I am.
This http://www.word-detective.com/2009/09/balmy/ discusses “balmy” and “barmy”. I suspect in context that balmy means “sentimentally weak-minded and silly” - just the mood to buy another drink…
I would say that “balmy” here means relaxed and pleasant, as one feels in balmy weather (or when soothed by balm). “Barmy” means crazy (though probably harmlessly so), and does not seem appropriate at all.
I am British, so I think that trumps your wife’s Australianness. Of course, T.S. Eliot, although he liked to pretend to be British, and lived in Britain a long time, was really from St. Louis, MO.